The objectives of the Inner City Asthma Consortium are to implement a long range scientific plan to reduce asthma severity and prevent asthma among inner city children and to identify the mechanisms involved in the immunopathogenesis of asthma in these populations. The specific objectives are to: 1) conduct clinical trials to evaluate the safety and efficacy of promising immune based therapies in reducing asthma severity and preventing disease onset in minority children residing in inner cities in the United States; 2) conduct research to delineate the underlying mechanisms of such therapies as an integral part of the clinical trials undertaken by the Consortium; 3) conduct clinical studies on the immunopathogenesis of asthma onset, progression and severity ; and 4) develop and validate surrogate / biomarkers to measure disease stage, progression and therapeutic effect.